38 Musings by Camp-Fire and Wayside 



voices of God, either direct or through friendly 

 spirits. I know by their tones and their gentleness 

 that they are friendly. The voices appear to come 

 as vibrations of the atmosphere of universal kind- 

 ness — an atmosphere which is to the wings of angels 

 what our material atmosphere is to the wings of 

 doves and bees. These voices take on at times a 

 plaintiveness and an anxiety, like that of a mother 

 searching here for a lost child. I suppose these 

 callings from the spiritual world, of which the 

 material world is a part, as the root is part of the 

 tree, and the foundation of the facade — I suppose 

 they may be heard at any time of life if one incline 

 to listen, but I hear them more distinctly now than 

 when I was young; yet Bryant, in his youth, wrote: 



" When thoughts of the last bitter hour come 

 Over thy spirit, and sad images 

 Of the stern agony and shroud and pall 

 Make thee to shudder and grow sick at heart, 

 Go forth, under the open sky, and list 

 To nature's teachings." 



